1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coaxial connector and a communication device including a coaxial connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some mobile communication devices such as portable telephones, include a surface mount type coaxial connector that performs a switching function of changing a signal path is used. In conventional coaxial connectors, for the purpose of reducing the number of manufacturing steps, a resin insulating case, a fixed terminal, and a movable elastic terminal having a spring property are integrally formed by insert molding, whereby the number of elements of the device is reduced.
However, when the device elements are integrally formed, the unit costs thereof are high. The main reason is that the maintenance cost of the production facilities and tools such as metal molds is increased in order to maintain a high quality of the device elements that are integrally formed, inspection of the quality of the device elements must be carefully performed, the acceptance ratio of the integrally formed device elements is reduced, and so forth. Moreover, for integral molding, highly complicated techniques are needed. Especially, in the case of small-sized, low-height coaxial connectors for which it is required to have a dimensional tolerance of several tens of xcexcm, generation of resin burs at insert molding is a critical problem to be solved.
In order to overcome the problems described above, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a high quality, low cost coaxial connector in which the number of manufacturing steps is greatly reduced, and a communication device having such a high quality, low cost coaxial connector.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a coaxial connector includes a first resin member having a concave portion into which a center contact of a mating coaxial connector is inserted, a second resin member for constituting an insulating case with the first resin member, a fixed terminal and a movable terminal fixed to one of the first resin member and the second resin member, and an external terminal mounted on the outside of the insulating case and electrically connected to an outer conductor of the mating coaxial connector, in which the fixed terminal and the movable terminal are sandwiched between the first resin member and the second resin member.
In the above-described configuration, the fixed terminal and the movable terminal are preferably separate components from the insulating cases, respectively. Thus, assembly of the various parts of the device can be carried out with less difficulty as compared with that of conventional assembly wherein the device elements are integrally formed by insert molding. Accordingly, the sum of the unit costs of the respective device elements is greatly reduced as compared with that of the conventional assembly parts.
Preferably, the coaxial connector has a structure in which the first resin member, the second resin member, the fixed terminal, the movable terminal, and the external terminal are overlaid on each other, and assembling of the first resin member, the second resin member, the fixed terminal, the movable terminal, and the external terminal is carried out in one direction.
Preferably, during assembly of the coaxial connector having the above-described unique configuration, the device elements such as the terminals, the resin members, and so forth are overlaid on each other sequentially to be incorporated while the work pieces are sequentially conveyed. Accordingly, even if the number of device elements is increased, the number of production processes is prevented from being increased. Moreover, since the assembly and incorporation work of the device elements is carried out in one direction, the production efficiency is even more enhanced.
A communication device according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention includes the coaxial connector having the above-described structure. Thus, reduction of the cost and enhancement of the device qualities are achieved.
Other features, elements, characteristics, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the attached drawings.